Alcoholism

[enjay]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland

My husband is a long-time recovering alcoholic. He does pretty well the vast majority of the time and attends AA.

He has survived a couple of rounds of layoffs at work but the problem is that he now works 12+ hours a day because the work is now being done by far fewer people. He goes to his meetings on the weekends but he's having a harder and harder time going during the work week. He has never shared that he is an alcoholic at work and he's afraid that if he asks to be off an hour earlier so that he can attend his meetings he'll be fired. He's tried to go during his lunch hour but because of drive time he only gets 15 mins at the meeting.

Does he have any protection or should he continue to suck it up?

 

[ecmst12]

He can request accomodation under the ADA. He will have to provide documentation of his disability, but it is likely that asking for an extra half an hour at lunch a few times a week, or leaving a little earlier, will be considered reasonable. And he can't be fired for making the request.

 

[xylene]

Talk to AA

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland

My husband is a long-time recovering alcoholic. He does pretty well the vast majority of the time and attends AA.

He has survived a couple of rounds of layoffs at work but the problem is that he now works 12+ hours a day because the work is now being done by far fewer people. He goes to his meetings on the weekends but he's having a harder and harder time going during the work week. He has never shared that he is an alcoholic at work and he's afraid that if he asks to be off an hour earlier so that he can attend his meetings he'll be fired. He's tried to go during his lunch hour but because of drive time he only gets 15 mins at the meeting.

Does he have any protection or should he continue to suck it up?

AA is a self help fellowship.

If there are not meetings to meet your husbands needs, he, as a fellow, should speak up and out to the organization about his needs.

Surely they mirror those of fellow alcoholics. Some chapters have meetings at 1:00 am.

Some manufacturing plants have meetings on-site.

 

[enjay]

Thanks much for the advice! He's private so I think he'd want to go the ADA route only as a last resort but it is nice to know that the option exists. He wouldn't require much of an accommodation as he only needs a couple of meetings during the week these days. I'll suggest that he talk to his AA group about his options.